Thursday, March 17, 2011

Slug Update


 
What I am trying to avoid
 In desperation, after discovering slimy slug trails on the soil-blocks I had planted in the cold-frame, I decided to try some new slug-deterrent methods. I am really not a fan of beer traps because they need to be tended to on a daily(ish) basis, and you have to deal with a lot of gross slug carcasses. I had been using pellets, a product that eventually kills off the slug population, but is not an immediate protectant. This is not good enough when it comes to tiny baby seedlings. Every night counts! So I decided to pull out all the stops. I sprinkled the whole tray with a mixture of coffee grounds and crushed eggshells to form a physical barrier and keep my seed-babies completely slug-free.
First, I will tell you that this seems to have worked! Second, I will tell you why. Caffeine is a neurotoxin to the slugs, and the eggshells are sharp and dangerous for soft slimy slug bodies--plus they take a long time to degrade, so they work as long as. What I discovered in my collection of this material, however, was that you really have to remove the membrane from the inside of the eggshell before you crush it up, otherwise the whole thing just kind of sticks together. Luckily I (evidently) use a lot of eggs, so this wasn't a huge challenge, but it was kind of annoying and mildly gross to peel the membranes out from all of the eggshells.

In conclusion, the verdict is that this is an excellent (and FREE!) method of keeping slugs off of baby plants. I will continue to use it and will update again if I discover otherwise.

1 comment:

  1. I just hope you can live with this incredibly large population of (now dead) slugs on your conscience.

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